Busy Bees Pre-School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children benefit from regular fresh air and enjoy being physically active as they explore the resources outside. They are happy and confident to make decisions about their play and learning, developing their independence. Children build good relationships with their peers, share, take turns and respect others' views.

For example, they thoroughly enjoy constructing a house out of foam bricks. They listen to each other's ideas as they work together to balance the bricks to build a tall wall, laughing as the wall eventually topples over. Staff praise them for their achievements, helping to boost motivation and enjoyment.

...Children enjoy craft activities, developing their thinking skills and creative ideas. For instance, when children make a hedgehog out of clay, they push lengths of dried spaghetti through the body and decide that they are making a robot instead. Staff support children well to develop their own ideas, encouraging them to think about how many eyes their robot needs and what they are going to use to make the eyes.

Children show good concentration skills for their age. They engage well and listen intently during group activities. They enjoy song time and even the youngest children join in with actions enthusiastically.

For example, staff support children successfully as they practise songs for the Christmas concert. Children giggle with delight as they pretend to be Santa stuck in the chimney, sneezing.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

The provider and new acting manager have a clear and ambitious vision for providing high-quality, inclusive care and education.

They, and the staff, have worked hard over the past few months, reflecting on practice and the learning environment to develop the curriculum. For example, staff identified that some children were not making swift progress in their literacy skills. As a result, they made changes, indoors and outdoors, to provide a print-rich environment with plenty of books and mark-making resources.

Boys and girls are keen to practise their early writing skills, such as writing letters to their friends in the 'hibernation corner' and producing a shopping list of resources outdoors. Older children are beginning to sound out phonics and form recognisable letters.Staff support children's communication and language skills well, including those children with identified speech delays.

They introduce new words, such as 'hibernation', to increase children's vocabulary, and engage children in conversation to reinforce their understanding. Staff repeat back words correctly and extend children's short phrases into sentences.Staff provide a wide range of interesting activities and experiences that motivate and engage children to learn.

The new manager recognises that, at times, these do not focus precisely enough on what children need to learn next. Staff help children to gain a love of books and stories, and extend their imagination. For instance, they join in with children's pretend play as characters from the 'Gruffalo' story.

They encourage children to recreate the story, and children are eager to talk about purple prickles on their back as they follow the mouse into the 'deep dark woods'.Staff form secure emotional bonds with children and work well with parents to help children settle quickly from the start. Parent state that all staff are friendly and welcoming and that they feel confident leaving their children in the safe care of staff.

They say that their children love attending the pre-school. They appreciate the information they receive about what their children do each day. However, some parents are not sure who is their child's key person or what their child's next steps in learning are, so that they can support them to achieve at home.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff have a good knowledge and understanding of child protection and wider safeguarding issues. The new safeguarding lead is receiving training and support to enhance their skills.

Staff know the correct procedures to follow should they have any concerns about a child or suitability of adults. The provider has recently attended safer recruitment training and understands the importance of implementing robust recruitment and induction procedures. She has introduced a new system to check regularly staff's and committee members' ongoing suitability for their role.

Staff teach children to keep themselves safe. For instance, they help young children choose a suitable place to sit on a rocker toy so that they do not bang their hand on nearby resources.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: plan activities more precisely, taking into account children's individual next steps in learning, to help all children make even more progress from their starting points strengthen communication and partnerships with parents further, to help engage them in their children's learning and provide consistency between the setting and home.

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